Avian (The Dragonrider Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF Page A

kinds of things, but there was no way I would be able to grow anything to eat in the dead of winter.
    I was hoping that if I carefully budgeted the little bit of money I had, I could make it last until training started again without having to find a job somewhere in the city. I could buy cheap grain, and try to set snares or hunt for squirrels and rabbits in the woods. Mavrik might even let me steal a few scraps from his kills, since he clearly didn’t have a problem finding his way to a deer when he wanted one.
    One way or another, I knew I would make it. I had to hold out for three months. Until then, I would learn to survive on my own.

three
     
    Before I left for the interlude, Lieutenant Rordin had insisted that I keep training during our three-month break, even though I wasn’t at the academy. I knew he was right. I was doomed to be smaller than all the other riders, so I was going to have to work a lot harder in order to keep up. I was going to have to train more than everyone else. So every morning, I did.
    The minute my feet hit the floor, I did as many push-ups and sit-ups as I could until I was soaked with sweat. Then I layered up in three or four shirts and two pairs of pants before braving the cold to run. I didn’t have a good gauge of how far I was going compared to how far we were running at the academy, so I just ran until I was too tired to go on. When I finally staggered back to the house, I ate a quick breakfast from my stores of food while I heated up water in the copper basin in the washroom. Then I bathed, changed into fresh clothes, and started the rest of my rigorous morning routine.
    Over the weeks, I set up a network of snares in the pine forest around the house. Since I was determined not to run into Katty, I avoided their property altogether. I baited my traps with little piles of seeds, or pieces of dried fruit, and was lucky enough to get a couple of rabbits or some squirrels almost every day. That paired with the big sack of dried apple chips, three wheels of cheese, and sack of grain I’d bought in the city made for good eating. After some vague instructions from the baker in town, I could even stagger through making crude loaves of bread. They didn’t taste great, not like the heavenly bread Mrs. Crookin made, but they were at least edible.
    During the day, I took up learning woodworking and carpentry. Those old tools I’d found in the loftroom became my friends, and I spent hours in Ulric’s workshop learning how to use them through trial and error. I learned to chisel, to shape wood, to craft whole pieces of furniture without having to use any nails. It wasn’t easy, and my hands blistered from handling the tools. I managed to cut myself a few times and bust my knuckles open with the hammer, but I was determined. I wasn’t giving up.
    My first few creations were pretty awful. I made a table with one leg that was shorter than all the others, so it wobbled and was basically useless. The first chair I made fell apart the minute I sat down in it. But I kept practicing. I loved it, even if I wasn’t good at it yet. I worked every day, and savored every second I spent shaping something useful out of raw pieces of wood. Eventually, my chairs didn’t fall apart. I could add extra details to the pieces I made, like intricate carvings, or claw-like feet to the bottoms of chair and table legs.
    I sold my first rocking chair to the baker in the city. It took me forever to carry it there on my back, but I didn’t want to risk anyone seeing me on Mavrik. That was a whole lot of attention I didn’t need. Once I got the chair to the bakery, I was careful not to say that I was the one who’d made it. But the baker’s wife was thrilled with it. She insisted on buying it the second she saw it. So I sold it for two silver pieces. It was the first time I felt like I’d done anything worthwhile, except for saving Sile’s life a few times the year before.
    Selling something I’d made boosted my